Slash: Surviving Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver and Rock's Snake Pit - Paul Stenning

Paul Stenning has written a number of rock music books over the years, mostly those of bands rather than individuals. This biography of Slash looks to be his first attempt at telling the story of a particular band member and if it's anything to go by, I certainly won't be reading any of the others he may produce.

Slash has been an iconic figure for many years, ever since Guns 'N' Roses hit the rock music scene with a resounding crash ...
...was he a great guitarist, but with a distinctive look thanks to a large mess of dark curly hair, his top hat and ever present Marlboro and bottle of Jack Daniels. He had trouble with drink, drugs and his relationship with Axl Rose, Guns 'N' Roses lead singer. After Guns 'N' Roses, Slash played with a couple of other groups and is still recording as a member of Velvet Revolver.

The book covers Slash's life from his early days as a child ... more

Paul Stenning has written a number of rock music books over the years, mostly those of bands rather than individuals. This biography of Slash looks to be his first attempt at telling the story of a particular band member and if it's anything to go by, I certainly won't be reading any of the others he may produce.

Slash has been an iconic figure for many years, ever since Guns 'N' Roses hit the rock music scene with a resounding crash back in the latter part of the 1980s. Not only was he a great guitarist, but with a distinctive look thanks to a large mess of dark curly hair, his top hat and ever present Marlboro and bottle of Jack Daniels. He had trouble with drink, drugs and his relationship with Axl Rose, Guns 'N' Roses lead singer. After Guns 'N' Roses, Slash played with a couple of other groups and is still recording as a member of Velvet Revolver.

The book covers Slash's life from his early days as a child in Stoke, through his move to America and his guitar playing career right up to the present. Unfortunately, it fails to deal with much of his life outside the music industry in any great depth His childhood, in particular, is touched on only very briefly and the book provides no real insight into the way he was growing up. Given that there are some potentially quite interesting aspects in his younger days, like his family moving from Stoke to America and his mother briefly dating David Bowie, more information on these things and how they affected Slash in later life would have been very welcome.

The one part that is covered in a fair amount of detail is Slash's career as part of Guns 'N' Roses, as this was by far the most successful part of his life, at least professionally. Again, whilst this is often fascinating information about how they got together and their early days as a band, it's all largely skimmed over. This part of the book has as much to do with the band itself as it does about Slash personally, although the sections where the deteriorating relationships between band members do involve him, although most of those situations had more to do with Axl than with Slash.

What I suspect is the major problem with this book is that it's an "unofficial and unauthorised" biography, which means that the author has not spoken directly to Slash or to many people associated with him whilst writing the book. There are plenty of quotes from Slash and from people who surrounded him throughout the text, but these are mostly referenced to other sources, mostly websites and magazines. There are a couple of surprising moments, such as finding Slash quoted on a pregnancy website talking about his children, but this does appear to be a book largely collated from information which has been in the public domain for a while.

Part of the other side of things that annoyed me was that there was quite a lot of the author's personal opinion within the book, especially when it comes to Slash's work. Wherever the author is talking about a particular album, he goes through it in a manner that would be better suited to a Dooyoo or Ciao review, not a published biography. Whilst personal opinion is certainly a valid form of expression, it doesn't seem to feel quite right having a place within the pages of a biography.

The book only succeeds in raising any level of interest in me because the subject has led a pretty interesting life and because I've been a big fan of two of the major groups Slash has been involved in. The book talks about events that are part of my own memories, but it concentrates entirely on information that already exists in the public domain and offers no new insights at all. Indeed, the only thing that Stenning has really done here is taken the time and effort that escape most people in going through and putting all this information together in one place. About the only thing that came as even a minor revelation to me was the discovery that, without his famous top hat, Slash is exactly the same height as I am. When something this minor is the main surprise in a book, it suggests there's not a huge amount going on within the pages.

A book this simply written and this lacking in new information would be a rip off at any price. I borrowed the copy I read from a friend and I still think I was overcharged. At an RRP of £12.99, it is certainly to be avoided and even the Amazon Marketplace price of 95 pence needs to be considered very carefully with regards to postage that may be added. Personally, I would feel that the nest way of getting the most out of Slash is to play his records, rather than to read this book. 

...less